subsidies

Homeowners in Ireland can now access hundreds of euros in grants to fund the installation of solar and energy storage systems as the government launches its first micro-generation scheme for the technology.

The Irish government has approved the country’s long-awaited Renewable Electricity Support Scheme (RESS), with the first auction set to take place in 2019 after state aid approval has been secured from the European Union.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) expects sub-5MW solar deployment to fall to between 50MW and 100MW each year as a result of its closure of the feed-in tariff scheme, its impact assessment reveals.

The government is keen to avoid a “bonanza” of people “gaming the system” as it continues to mull a replacement for the small-scale feed-in tariff scheme.

One of the first high profile subsidy-free commercial installs has been completed at the Keepmoat Stadium, home to Doncaster Rovers Football Club, with low technology costs and public sector backing showing that solar has a strong future post-feed-in tariff (FiT).

Solar Power Portal is delighted to reveal the shortlists for the Solar Power Portal and Energy-Storage.News Awards 2018.

SPP talks to Alastair Mounsey, UK country manager at JA Solar, about what to expect from the UK market as it rebounds and what installers can learn from other markets who’ve managed regulatory change in the past.

The UK solar and storage markets are on the brink of overcoming a deployment roadblock, according to a number of vendors actively monitoring the territory.

Only one new community energy company was set up in 2017 as evidence continues to mount of “a wholesale decline” in the number of new organisations and projects since cuts to support for these initiatives began in 2015.

The UK’s solar installs across 2017 were less than half that of the previous year according to SolarPower Europe’s latest report, which has dubbed the UK “the only rainy” European country in terms of growth to 2022.